Now and Then (Spenser)
by Robert B. Parker
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert B. ParkerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-07
ISBN: 0425224147
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of Now and Then (Spenser)
Book Review: Too Full of Itself
Summary: 2 Stars
Though not difficult to get a feel for the characters in this book, since I am not a regular Spenser fan it felt like I landed in the middle of an episode of a popular show everyone has been watching but me. It wasn't uncomfortable or confusing, just a trifle unusual for a series novel not to have any back story on any of the characters.
PI Spenser takes a case from a distressed husband who wants his wife followed. Spenser gets evidence of her affair on tape, but he gets more than he bargained for when he overhears some very interesting pillow talk. The FBI also finds it interesting, especially when both Spenser's client and his cheating wife are murdered. That Professor Perry Alderson, the woman's lover, seems to have no past is of interest to Spenser, and he is determined he will find out who the man really is and bring him to justice.
Wisecracking Spenser is joined by his vibrant and beautiful lover, Susan Silverman, a psychiatrist who becomes intimately involved in the case, a very lenient FBI agent friend, and a racial mishmash of thug friends who shoot to kill on reflex: Vinnie, Hawk, and Chollo. They cruise through the story trading witty banter and being too cool for their bad selves in a way that is downright smarmy. Spenser is Mr. Slick, directing both the FBI and the local cops to do his bidding, and don't worry your pretty little head over the number of bodies that pile up. They all had it coming, after all.
This is the lightest mystery I have ever read. Nancy Drew's adventures are total nail biters compared to this. Neither Spenser nor his leading lady were ever in the least amount of danger, and Spenser didn't so much as catch a stray piece of lint on his suit, much less suffer anything as traumatizing as a broken nail. I have a feeling all of this could be forgiven by Spenser fans, who might lose themselves in the flurry of clever banter among the characters, but to me it was nothing but a bit of fluff. I also tired of Spenser and Susan's incessant blase conversations about an infidelity that came off like they were discussing nothing more emotionally fraught than golf scores. The most annoying problem, however, is the fact that the author has not bothered to find another verb to use in place of SAID, and every quotation ends in he said or she said or someone said, which was more than a trifle annoying. Though I didn't think it was horrible, a book needs to have a lot more depth, a little danger, and some thrills to be worth reading. This one failed on all counts.
Summary of Now and Then (Spenser)
Investigating a case of infidelity sounds simple-until it plunges Spenser and his beloved Susan into a politically charged murder plot that's already left three people dead.General Books
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